Last month Kinesis customer iGR released findings from a study they conducted about how consumers typically utilize their smartphones. Just as these devices themselves are evolving, so are the preferred activities that are performed on them. iGR issued a survey to 1000+ U.S. smartphone users (balanced by age and income) and asked them to report on what they actually do with their “phones.”
Since there are many potential uses – phone calls, texting, apps, email, web browsing, playing music/videos, playing games, photo/video capture and more – iGR’s findings are highly relevant not only to the smartphone industry, but to our own market research industry as well. As researchers attempt to develop solid recruitment and engagement models for survey respondents, it is crucial to know which smartphone activities most often capture the attention of their users, both overall and by demographic segmentation. While some of the data collected by iGR aligns with what we might assume is expected usage, other data show that smartphones, more than likely in combination with social media, are defining communications altogether.
In the not-so-surprising results category, 20.5% of respondents reported that they use their smartphones for “all of the above,” meaning that one in five engage in all of the major activities that their devices have to offer. Also to be expected, younger users are more likely to play games, listen to music and download/watch/send videos than older users. iGR also found that certain smartphone activities are age-neutral; users download apps and take/send photos at the nearly the same percentages regardless of age.
Yet other findings from this study were somewhat startling. iGR’s first choice on the survey’s activity list was “voice calls.” Given that the name of this device type is smartphone, and the fact that they have rapidly replaced earlier generation mobile phones, it would be assumed that nearly every respondent would have either selected this option or the “all of the above” option – because doesn’t every smartphone owner use their device to make and receive phone calls? According to iGR’s findings, the answer here is no. Only 64% of respondents checked the “voice calls” option, so in totality with the “all of the above” responses, that leaves 15% of participants who report not using their smartphone for phone calls.
As probably anticipated, the percent of these “non-callers” increases to about 20% in younger groups, and drops to 10% for those age 55+, but overall these findings mean that about 15% of U.S. smartphone users say they are not making phone calls on their devices – which equates to about 40 million people. In reality, it is likely that some in this group occasionally make phone calls, but they do not appear to value the ability. We confirmed with iGR that those in this group are also no more likely than the others to additionally own a tablet, so it does not appear that multi-smart-device usage is influencing these numbers. With the rise of social media, communications have often become one-to-many, and the traditional voice call no longer provides the power and efficiency in comparison to newer communications modes.
For both online and mobile research, most survey projects are initiated via email and/or text invitation rather than by phone call, so the impact of these findings is not as significant, however they are incredibly impactful for CATI and IVR research practices. Smartphone penetration is increasing across all demographic groups, yet it appears that the decline of mobile phone call use has already begun. Furthermore, now that the majority of U.S. households are mobile only without active landlines, CATI and IVR research methodologies will continue to decline in both reach and effectiveness. It seems as though the next era of market research must rely on non-phone methodologies – perhaps the message from consumers today is “Don’t call us, and we won’t call you.”
Those who have been reading this blog with any regularity know that we at Kinesis have been arguing, for nearly a decade now, that the market research industry must shift its online survey processes to support mobile respondents. Surveys must enable respondents to participate from any common web device of their choosing – be it a desktop computer, a tablet, or a mobile phone. In recent years many others within the industry have joined us as proponents of mobile and multimode survey implementation, so the collective voice has been growing louder. Unfortunately, it appears that many researchers are still not listening.
Today at the annual CASRO Technology Conference Tim Macer of meaning limited and Pat Molloy of Confirmit shared results from the latest edition of their annual market research technology survey of MR professionals in a session entitled “State of Technology in Market Research.” They indicated that the results for mobile survey traffic rates were reported to be approximately 5-10% of total online survey traffic, depending on company and geographic location. They also indicated that more than 60% of the respondents reported that their companies are taking no action or have no formal policy to address mobile survey participation. Yikes.
If mobile survey traffic rates of 5-10% does not alert market researchers that non-support of mobile respondents is now a serious problem, perhaps our percentage will: for Q1 2012 more than 25% of Kinesis’ overall U.S. survey traffic came from mobile devices (although it must be noted that the percentages were substantially lower in other parts of the world). This figure represents a rapid and significant increase of mobile device usage on the Kinesis survey platform, and amplifies the necessity of mobile device support. Granted, some may argue that Kinesis’ figure is not as representative of the overall industry as perhaps the figures reported above, since Kinesis was early to market with a mobile solution and may have a more “mobile-centric” customer base than the industry at large. Still, no matter how you interpret these rates, industry-wide mobile traffic is only going one direction: up.
So for the 60+% of research companies that are not actively addressing mobile device support – what should be done? First, they should acknowledge that it is the responsibility of EVERY market research company to pave the way for their own survey respondents. Every company involved in DIY has the same responsibility. Listed below are multiple courses of action that each company can take, and these are not mutually exclusive:
Detect for device/browser being used, and make sure that survey programming supports all (or the majority of) devices on the market.
Detect for device/browser being used, and terminate those that cannot be supported with a brief apology/ explanation. Let respondents know when the survey is long, utilizes Flash, etc., and that it will not render well on mobile devices. Give them the opportunity to pick back up again on a desktop device (or tablet if no Flash is used).
In fact, let’s stop using Flash altogether whenever possible.
Develop methodologies that shorten the survey experience for mobile respondents. Show mobile respondents fewer and only the most salient questions in a survey.
Panels need to be made ready for mobile as well. Incentive redemption, community engagement, and all panel-related activities need to be mobile-enabled if the panel is to stay current and relevant.
These steps are not only desirable, they are critical to the survival of the industry. We at Kinesis have no doubt that the percentages of mobile survey traffic for every market research company will only continue to increase…and increase rapidly. And it is our hope that next year’s research-on-research findings indicate a majority of MR companies are actively mobilizing their mobile strategy.
The Market Research in the Mobile World conference took place in Amsterdam last week; it was an agenda-packed and insightful event that solidified the industry’s commitment to expanding both the opportunities and the capabilities of mobile market research on a global scale.
Kinesis’ Leslie Townsend and Tariq Mirza delivered a session “Glocalizing” Mobile Research in the European Region which compared mobile survey traffic, device usage, completion rates, and other metrics between Europe and the U.S. Kinesis also conducted a survey among the conference attendees via our multimode MRMW Community to gauge researchers’ own perceptions on mobile; some results are shown below:
The majority of MRMW respondents indicated that location-based research and gamification will gain prominence in the near future, but a number of respondents indicated that it is still too soon to tell/don’t know what impact the various mobile capabilities will have on the industry. This was somewhat surprising to us, given what our own Kinesis respondent traffic looks like these days. Ms. Townsend and Mr. Mirza shared some Q1 data that revealed more than 25.5% of Kinesis’ U.S. survey traffic is now mobile, and that mobile-intended surveys completed on mobile devices have an impressive 59.7% completion rate in the European region. From our data, mobile is gaining ground in all areas of market research, and at a faster rate than ever before.
More information from their MRMW session, and additional findings from Kinesis’ latest data, will be shared in an upcoming Kinesis whitepaper – be on the lookout for it next month. Our team will also be present at the MRMW U.S. event being held July 18-19 in Cincinnati; we look forward to continuing the conversation then.
OnlineMR recently conducted an interview with Kinesis President Leslie Townsend. She offers up a valuable perspective on the current state of the market research industry, and also shares some history about Kinesis.
“We believed back then – which has certainly proven true since – that mobile technology would become vital within the MR industry for immediate, flexible and highly reliable feedback gathering.” — Leslie Townsend
Right now the 18-34 year old demographic that is so coveted among advertisers is almost exclusively comprised of people who are part of the Millennial generation. Millennials (also called Generation Y) are a highly influential group of consumers and as such market researchers seek their feedback on virtually every kind of brand, product and concept. Like all generations, there are aspects of Millennials’ communication habits and preferences that are unique from other segments of the population, and understanding these factors is crucial for researchers.
Millennials have never known adulthood without the Internet and mobile phones. For the younger half of the 18-34 year old group, social media has been part of their everyday lives since they were tweens. A staggering 95 percent of US Millennials own a mobile phone (more than 40 percent own a smartphone), and 81 percent use Facebook every day. Researchers who are eager to recruit and engage Millennials in survey participation clearly should strive to meet this generation on their preferred communication platforms. Certainly the market research industry is already undergoing a transformation to account for mobile and social media usage, but the question remains – are we evolving quickly enough?
Desktop Internet usage remains very high among the GenX and Boomer generations, however Millennials are a much more mobile-centric group. The mobile-only Internet population is expected to grow 56-fold from 14 million at the end of 2010 to 788 million by the end of 2015. That’s just a few short years away. And while overall social media usage is beginning to level off, the percentage of social media traffic coming from mobile devices is still steadily growing. This is a clear indication that the combination of the two platforms is where some of the most compelling and radical transformation of MR communications will occur. In order to engage the prized Millennials, as well as the generation coming up behind them, research software solutions simply must support full-function mobile and social media interaction…and the time for implementation is right now.
SoLoMo is the new acronym on the block, according to the presenters at last week’s Geo-Loco Conference held in San Francisco. Executives from Google, Facebook, and Starbucks were among those who discussed the convergence of the Social, Local and Mobile platforms and how the marketplace is being transformed through this synergy. Many of the sessions centered around how to capitalize on mobile location-based technologies to improve consumer engagement and drive promotions and sales in real-time. And while the Geo-Loco agenda was not specifically targeting market researchers, its insights certainly have big implications for our industry.
There is no doubt that location technologies, just like social and mobile technologies, hold tremendous promise for market research. The possibilities for location-based surveys are vast, and could very well transform how the majority of market research is conducted in the future. A valid criticism of location-based technologies has been that they are still too imprecise for most applications in our industry, particularly when utilized indoors. Yet, many of the Geo-Loco speakers argued that location-tracking precision will continue to improve just like all SoLoMo technologies that offer value, and one day we will be able to accurately track consumers in a building, on a floor, and even near a product on the shelf. Just how far off this capability really is can be (and is being) debated, but it is coming.
Kinesis ran its first location-based research project back in 2007 utilizing geo-fencing, so it is a technology we have been evaluating for some time. Earlier this year we introduced a mobile research app designed for point-of-sale diaries that utilizes geolocation to identify where and when diary entries are made. While we have found it advantageous for certain types of projects, we do not feel location-tracking is yet ready for broad implementation in market research. Kinesis will continue to keep an eye on the advancements of location-based technologies and all things SoLoMo, and expand our solution suite accordingly in order to keep our clients at the top of the research game.
Be sure to stay tuned to privacy issues around geolocation – we will be posting more on this issue soon.
There are many resources available, including several from Kinesis, that detail best practices for mobile surveys. Harder to find are best practice recommendations specific to mobile survey invitations; while there are actually numerous invitation options to consider, little information is available to the MR industry as to which are most effective for any given mobile research project. This is primarily because a majority of today’s mobile survey traffic comes from respondent intercept on mobile websites and ads, rather than from mobile panels. Things are starting to change however – Kinesis is seeing significant growth of mobile and multimode panels among our clients and throughout the industry – and therefore effective mobile invitation delivery is becoming a critical issue. The challenge is that there are many mobile invitation modes to consider, and determining which mode(s) to utilize can be tricky. Below Kinesis has briefly identified both the well-known and emerging mobile survey invitation options available to researchers, with some recommendations for use.
Email. Just as is the case with desktop surveys, email is a predominant survey invitation method used in mobile research, and rightfully so. Email is a very inexpensive invitation option, recipients are highly familiar and use it regularly, and delivery times can be precisely scheduled. Email remains a strong and perhaps the best option for multi-mode (web/mobile) studies in that it provides respondents with the ultimate flexibility to decide when, where and via what device they will participate.
There is also an email-to-text option that uses the built-in email address specific to each mobile phone rather than the recipient’s third-party email application, but since many mobile subscribers do not know and do not use their mobile email address, Kinesis does not generally recommend this option. While it can be useful in camera phone ethnographies and mobile diaries, today’s mobile devices are sophisticated enough to utilize the third-party email applications for these projects, and therefore this invitation mode is becoming obsolete.
SMS. SMS is a widely used mobile communication method, particularly among younger mobile subscribers, and enables the survey invitation to be sent as a text message. SMS short codes are well-suited when targeted recipients’ mobile phone numbers and email addresses are not known, and are currently the most popular option for recruiting feedback at public venues because they are fast/easy to type and automatically return the survey URL (or other content). SMS is a highly immediate option, yet it can be expensive. Per-usage fees are often required which can make implementation undesirable if the sample size is large, and may involve usage fees for the respondents themselves (although there are some new free-to-recipient SMS services emerging – the MR industry should keep watch here). Additionally, in Europe and other places where GSM network standards are used, WAP Push is available. WAP Push utilizes an encoded message which can be used to send links that open up directly in the mobile browser, and has proven to have higher completion rates than basic SMS.
MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service). MMS is like SMS but it can also send sound, images and video files in addition to basic text. Currently MMS usage is very expensive and there is not a single standard in use. Additionally, email provides much higher resolution for images, and mobile email supports other forms of media more readily, therefore Kinesis does not recommend MMS.
QR Codes. QR codes are a further option for pubic venue research where targeted recipients’ mobile phone numbers and email addresses are not available. QR code invitations are inexpensive to implement (the only required cost is signage/display printing) and ensure that surveys are accessed from the mobile device like SMS invitations. Respondents for QR code surveys are limited to those who have an installed QR code reader/scanner app on their mobile device, but QR code knowledge and usage is growing very quickly worldwide, and it will likely be a very viable invitation option moving forward. QR codes may also be used in conjunction with short codes to appeal to the broadest possible audience and increase response rates.
Location-based. Utilizing the location-tracking technology that comes standard with most smartphones, survey invitations can be triggered based on the targeted recipients’ physical location. Technologies such as geo-location, geo-fencing, Bluetooth, etc., ensure real-time invitation delivery, and can also confirmation where a survey was completed. There are limitations with this mode however; mobile users have the ability to turn off this feature, location tracking is still sometimes imprecise, and its usage may require compliance with regional privacy laws. Researchers need to be careful not to abuse or alienate respondents with location tracking until the technology becomes more mature, so therefore today it should be used with caution.
In-App Messaging. Use of smartphone in-app messaging obviously first requires that a custom mobile research app has already been developed and downloaded to the phones of the participants. For research panels where regular communication is necessary and expected, apps are a good option. Beyond the development and maintenance costs, app messaging is typically free and invitations pop up similarly to text messages.
Social Media. Several survey software tools now offer survey invitation integration with leadingsocial media sites like Facebook and Twitter, and this is a good option for multi-mode surveys since these sites are readily accessed by both web and mobile browsers. Social media sites are a good recruitment source for brands and companies with an active and successful social media presence, however survey invitations posted to a Facebook Wall or Twitter Feed may be easily ignored, and therefore response rates may be lower than expected.
Naturally, determining which mobile invitation option(s) to use is dependent upon the type of survey being conducted, the targeted demographic groups, and also the regions in which the project will take place. Significant research-on-research will be necessary to determine industry-wide mobile survey invitation best practices, but in the meantime, hopefully this blog can shed some light on both the pros and cons of the options available for today’s mobile projects.
Earlier this year Kinesis unveiled QR code support for Kinesis Survey™ so that clients could automatically generate a QR code for any mobile or multimode survey. Just last month we introduced the most advanced MROC portal, Kinesis Community™, which also can utilize QR codes as a means to drive recruitment of new panelists. While QR code implementation is not yet a widespread practice among our clients, nor among the greater market research industry, Kinesis is certainly ready when they are. Considering some recently released QR code usage statistics, it looks as if consumers – particularly those in younger demographics – are ready as well. Last week Comscore reported that 14 million Americans scanned a QR code using their mobile phones in June (representing 6.2 percent of the total mobile audience and 53.4 percent of users ages 18-34). In July, Mobio indicated that QR code scanning grew 9,840 percent in North America in Q2 2011 on a year-over-year basis.
What does this mean for market research? It means that there is a significant opportunity for the industry to get ahead of this mobile technology’s rapid adoption and capitalize on the benefits it affords our projects and clients. It means there is a less expensive and just-as-easy-to-use alternative to SMS short codes for general intercept research. While short codes are currently the most commonly utilized method for recruiting respondents to provide feedback at retail stores, restaurants and other consumer-targeted locations, they are an expensive invitation delivery option. The client must incur a fee every time a potential respondent submits the short code – or worse – the respondent is charged for initiating the text. Here is the big “in” for QR codes – free for both parties!
QR codes can be displayed on promotional media just like SMS short codes, yet there is virtually no cost associated with their use. While photographing a QR code first requires that a QR code reader application (app) is installed on the mobile device, several free and nominal cost apps are available for download on a variety of mobile devices. Additionally, as QR code usage continues to grow and becomes commonplace among mobile users, it is highly likely that smartphone OS providers will begin including QR code functionality as part of the standard mobile operating system, and thus eliminate the need for users to search for and download an app on their own.
For now, Kinesis recommends that all researchers who utilize short codes as an invitation delivery method also provide a QR code option. Using both in tandem provides potential respondents with greater flexibility and offers a choice that is free of charge. In the future, as QR code knowledge and usage continues to grow among consumers, QR codes will very likely supplant SMS short codes, unless the fee structure of SMS usage is radically changed.
The market research industry has an opportunity to lead mobile marketers to greater QR code adoption and assist them to reduce the research costs for many general intercept projects. Won’t you join us?
The Survey Geek recently posted a highly sarcastic (and highly entertaining) blog entitled How to write a mobile research pitch piece. It labels mobile research as largely “hype,” questions the significance and usefulness of mobile as a data collection platform, and postulates that most researchers who pitch mobile to their clients lack proof of its effectiveness. While a very entertaining read, this blog post is somewhat misleading and certainly one-sided. As the leading provider of mobile market research software solutions, Kinesis naturally feels the need to offer a counterpoint. Jason Cazes, Kinesis Sales Engineer, provided this excellent retort:
Fully realizing this post is made in jest, I’m going to try to address the underlying mentality in a counter-argument…
I agree with you wholeheartedly that people who approach new technology or ideas with a lot of energy but without any sort of plan or direction need to settle down and start producing. This is not a new concept, and it is certainly not unique to market research. People get excited about new technology, and they start talking about it. Some people innovate, and others don’t really know what to do with the new information and so they just keep talking. Some conferences (and now social media) seem to amplify this sort of useless chatter, but these communication mediums can also spark new innovations through knowledge-sharing.
Yes, there are limitations with mobile. There are limitations with every data collection medium. Phone, paper, and internet all present data collection challenges, but there are three important things to note about mobile:
Mobile is unquestionably the best way to intercept respondents in-store or on-site. This is already being done, and researchers are already successfully collecting and analyzing data. Sure, some may not want to participate, but inferring that the collection method itself is intrusive is just a fallacy of composition. Incentives change everything.
Mobile is simply another way people are connecting to the internet.
Limitations traditionally posed by mobile surveys are fading fast as mobile devices become more advanced.
In some regions – like the US – people are now purchasing more smartphones than feature phones. Does it make sense to launch a WAP survey in the heart of a location with low mobile internet access penetration? Absolutely not. Data collection efforts should always factor demographics and geography into the launch plan.
Revisiting the topic of the rise of mobile usage, consumers will soon be spending more time on their mobile devices than on their traditional desktop / laptop computers. Watching the iPad become the fastest growing consumer electronics product in history demonstrates this movement loud and clear. People want to spend more of their down time on mobile devices. Look at Nielsen’s latest mobile usage statistics to see the diversity of where people are using their devices and (potentially) browsing the web. These people are potential respondents!
In summary, market researchers need to be ready for respondents no matter which medium those respondents desire – internet (including mobile), phone, or paper.
Merlien Institute’s Market Research in the Mobile World conference took place earlier this week and was a resounding success. The varied sessions offered the best mobile research content of any conference this year, and attendees were highly engaged and inspired.
The conference offered four topical modules over two days, with numerous speakers and expert roundtables. One of the modules, named Strategic Insight, posed this question: Will we recognize the market research industry in five years? Kinesis President Leslie Townsend was among the speakers featured in this module, and to address this question she listed her top ten predictions about the future of the industry during her speech “Future-proof Mobile Research: Successful Survey and Panel Strategies for the Mobile Revolution.”
Keeping in mind that Kinesis believes that market research projects will be dominated by mobile technology within the next five years, here is Ms. Townsend’s list (note that these predictions are provided in no particular order of importance):
Apps will be a mostly transitional phenomena in the industry as browsers become more powerful and replace the need for the majority of apps.
Mobile will hasten adoption of online methodologies in developing nations and regions, bringing billions of individuals to the global respondent pool.
Mobile technology will further drive down data collection costs.
Respondent authentication processes will for the most part remain the same, but engagement measures will be radically different.
Geolocation will become the most important new type of metadata.
Both traditional and new methodologies will exist side-by-side (as an example, the conjoint is not going away – but traditional methodologies may actually increase in cost).
Email will still be the dominant form of survey invitation, but probably not by much, and the industry will be having extensive discussions about invitation mode bias for the foreseeable future.
Routers will incorporate mobile traffic, and advanced behavioral sampling frameworks will exist alongside them – and incorporate mobile-centric and mobile-only behavior.
The CPG industry finally will be able to track impulse purchases with precision.
In-store couponing will be married with surveys as a new incentive mode, as the lines between marketing and market research data collection blur.
Mobile functionality will take online research far beyond where we are with the web today, driving new methodologies, respondent pools, and data types, and driving our industry to be increasingly innovative. Meanwhile Kinesis will continue to evolve and enhance our mobile research platform in order to capitalize on the latest and most beneficial mobile technologies, and remain your future-proof market research solutions provider.
Recently our president Leslie Townsend presented sessions focusing on mobile market research at both the CASRO Technology and MRA Annual conferences. Each session had time for Q&A at the end, and the CASRO presentation produced a very interesting question on the topic of “jailbreaking.” The attendee was curious as to how the market research industry should best support mobile respondents who have jailbroken smartphones.
In case you are among those who are unfamiliar with this term, jailbreaking describes the process of unlocking the full potential of an Apple iOS device (iPhones, iPods, iPads, etc.) and circumventing limitations imposed by Apple. It allows users to install custom apps not approved by Apple’s App Store, customize the look and feel of the phone’s theme, and modify other settings and functions otherwise unchangeable within the stock software. This process is called rooting when performed on Android devices, and although no specific term has been coined in reference to Windows Mobile, some users of those phones perform such alterations to their operating systems as well. There are in fact large communities with the express purpose of unlocking and changing the capabilities of these smartphones. Nearly all device manufacturers specify that jailbreaking, unlocking, or otherwise hacking a smartphone will void its warranty, but the practice of modifying electronics and software seems to have been an accepted risk for technology enthusiasts and tinkerers since the beginning of personal computing. For a more in-depth look at what unlocking and installing custom software entails, check out this article.
From a market research perspective, supporting jailbreakers is relevant because online data collection begins and ends with respondents being able to successfully access web-based surveys, and more and more frequently surveys are being accessed from mobile devices. It is estimated that more than 10% of all iPhones are jailbroken, and since many jailbreakers are part of the Millennial generation that is of course a highly sought after demographic for marketers, ensuring that they are able to participate in market research surveys is imperative. Additionally, because jailbreaking/rooting practices are legal in the U.S., it is likely that the percentage of unlocked smartphones will continue to rise.
Fortunately, most custom operating systems and custom browsers being installed today do in fact report their device type to websites correctly, so web pages and/or online surveys using automatic device detection should be able to render content appropriately even when a device has been jailbroken and its browser modified. Kinesis offers support for the largest array of devices in the market research industry, and regularly monitors/tests smartphone OS and browser compatibility with our survey software to ensure the widest possible implementation.
The AAPOR Annual Conference short course entitled “Designing Surveys for Mobile Devices,” presented May 11th by Mario Callegaro of Google and Tim Macer of Meaning Ltd., was the best-attended mobile session that we have seen so far.
The first half of the tutorial focused upon statistics that impact the survey research industries. Callegaro presented data indicating that the frequency of mobile internet access is increasing rapidly (as of May 2010, up to 43% of mobile phone users were accessing the mobile internet several times daily), that smartphone ownership is sharply rising, and that respondents are attempting to answer surveys via their mobile devices. In a June 2010 Google Advertiser Satisfaction Survey of the US and Canada, Google measured the break-off (dropout) rates of respondents who used desktop/laptop/tablet devices versus mobile devices and found the break-off rate to be much higher among mobile device users (24.2% vs. 8.4% for the computer group). This data indicates a clear non-response bias, as assumed to be attributable to the frustration experienced by the mobile users when attempting to answer certain question types on small screens.
The second half of the presentation provided mobile survey design suggestions and software vendor comparisons that are in part available on the Meaning Ltd. website (www.meaning.uk.com.) Check out the website for this information, and also to get an objective viewpoint as to where mobile is headed in the research industry. Vendor recommendations and segmentations, as well as thoughts about the various approaches to mobile research solutions, are available.
In their closing, both Callegaro and Macer emphasized that “the survey software cannot do it all,” and that market researchers need to begin assessing redesign issues on a project-by-project basis. While not all research projects will require mobile device support, many will need to be mobile-enabled due to the continual growth of mobile device usage. The speakers’ first step recommendation was to immediately begin monitoring the percentage of respondents that are entering projects using a mobile device, and also which specific device types are being used. This small piece of metadata will be invaluable in determining when it is essential to take further action. They also encouraged researchers to begin making simple design modifications that allow surveys and other research projects to be more easily rendered across a wider variety of devices. For additional recommendations about mobile survey design, see a previous Kinesis blog post.
The March issue of Research Magazine includes a detailed review of Kinesis Survey™ by Tim Macer. We certainly like what he had to say. Some highlights:
“Offers a feature set as advanced as any of the established major players”
“…Kinesis has already enticed an impressive list of high-profile research companies in the USA away from more established web survey software providers.”
“’Ease of use’ has long become a cliche of software marketing. Yet this software is a lesson in what the term should mean.”
“High-end platform for web, mobile or mixed-mode online self-completion surveys with integrated real-time reporting and publishing.”
Pick up a copy of Research Magazine to read the full review.
Last October we published a blog post that called for A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action Please concerning the most pressing issues in market research for 2011. This was an informal appeal to the industry to move away from conceptual and theory-based presentations and papers about why market research practices must evolve, and instead start offering tangible recommendations about how to survive the evolution. After having attended CASRO’s annual Online Research Conference in Las Vegas last week, Kinesis is encouraged that the industry is now also subscribing to this mantra. Session presenters took on several of the hot-button topics that are changing the face of market research, and they offered true insight based on studies and analyses conducted by their companies.
Sean Conry of Techneos Systems and Patricia Graham of Knowledge Networks presented a case study about the principle considerations of implementing mobile research, and provided detailed results of their case study project and its business implications. The NPD Group’s Inna Burdein looked at how panelist reporting habits change as they become tenured, and how research results are affected. Melanie Courtwright and Chuck Miller from DMS Insights compared four of the most commonly used respondent validation programs to understand the validation metrics used by each and the resulting validation rates provided. These, and many other sessions, were truly insightful and had a lot of “action” included within their conversation.
Interestingly, the session topics that CASRO elected to feature at the conference mirror many of the topics addressed here on the Kinesis blog in recent months. We see this as further validation of the direction we are moving with our solution offerings. In the last year Kinesis has introduced new mobile research apps, expanded our multimode survey functionality, incorporated new technologies such respondent validation, and greatly expanded the capabilities of our panel management software. Kinesis is on pulse with the direction the MR industry is heading, and we will continue to add our own action-filled conversations to the mix. Next up: Tariq Mirza, Kinesis’ Managing Director of Europe, will present “Bridging the Mobile Gap: The Journey from Why to How in Mobile Research” at the Swedish Market Research Day on March 17. Also, look for Kinesis President Leslie Townsend to be among the session presenters at the Marketing Research Association’s Annual Conference in June (details to follow).
Tariq Mirza Appointed as Managing Director of European Operations
AUSTIN, TX (January 10, 2011)- Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC (Kinesis), the industry leader for future-proof market research software solutions, today announced the opening of a European office based in London.
The new office serves market research firms and enterprise businesses located throughout Europe. This additional location enables Kinesis to better support its European-based clients, as well as engage new prospective customers in the region. The office is led by market research industry veteran Tariq Mirza, Managing Director, Europe. Mirza was formerly employed by Intellex Dynamic Reporting, and has more than seventeen years of experience in market research software sales and development with Quantime, Voxco and Nebu.
“Kinesis is increasingly focused upon servicing companies with global operations that require regional expertise,” said Kinesis President Leslie Townsend. “The addition of a London office will facilitate Kinesis’ expansion in the region, and Tariq Mirza is highly qualified to lead these efforts. We are very pleased to have him join our team.”
“Kinesis is a company that is perfectly positioned for the future of market research,” Mirza said. “It is clearly ahead of the game by offering a multimode web/mobile research platform linked to communities – as this is precisely where our industry is headed. I am extremely excited to join Kinesis and help secure a leading position both in Europe and globally.”
Interested parties can reach the Kinesis London office at +44 20 7956 2119, or by emailing Mirza at tariq.mirza@kinesissurvey.com.
About Kinesis Survey Technologies
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a multimode survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both mobile and web-based market research. Delivering intuitive, state-of-the-art applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.
Here comes another new year, so inevitably it is time to make those New Year’s resolutions. Many of us will make personal resolutions – probably to get healthier or to spend more quality time with loved ones. But what about professional resolutions? The market research industry is undergoing a full-fledged revolution, and now is the time to plot out your business strategies in response.
Kinesis offers up the following as the Top 5 Market Research Resolutions for the coming year. Consider implementing these resolutions and chart your successful course for 2011.
1. Go Mobile.
According to an Opera report released this week, global usage of mobile devices more than doubled in 2010, with 340 billion pages viewed. Mobile web access and smartphone penetration are both exploding as well, so there is no doubt left that online surveys must be expanded to support mobile device interaction. Even better, surveys should be available in multimode to offer ultimate flexibility. Respondents now have multiple web access options to choose from, and researchers cannot control that choice. If you regularly conduct online research projects, do not delay — now is the time to develop your mobile and multimode strategy.
2. Get Social.
Just like mobile device usage, social media is exploding everywhere. Online communities such as Facebook and Twitter are redefining how people communicate and interact. As of July 2010, Facebook had more than
125 million users in the U.S. alone, a growth rate of 352.6% in 24 months. Brands are taking advantage of the marketing boon offered by these sites, and researchers should be too. Social media usage is growing among nearly all demographic groups, and therefore these sites must be incorporated into your recruitment strategies in order to obtain representative sample.
3. Refine Design.
People are busier than ever before, so attracting and keeping their attention is a significant challenge. This cultural shift is directly responsible for the enormous success of Twitter – we like our communication to be as efficient and succinct as possible. These criteria should be applied to modern survey design as well. Long, complicated and text-heavy surveys are on their way out. Consider shorter, easier surveys that incorporate visually interesting graphics to engage respondents, while ensuring that your research objectives are still met.
4. Go Legit.
For individuals with the know-how, there are plenty of ways to inflict grave bias into research results. Survey duplications, speed-through completions, unauthorized access locations, etc. are becoming more are more prevalent in online research. If you are not already, start protecting data integrity by utilizing a reputable respondent authentication solution.
5. Be Cutting-Edge.
The first four resolutions listed here can really be summed up by this fifth one. Customers want research conducted and interpreted faster, easier and cheaper than ever before; and researchers have very full plates just competing for projects and satisfying clients. Often there isn’t much time leftover to devote to understanding and implementing new MR strategies and technologies on your own. The best way to remain ahead of the research curve is to partner with a solutions provider who can do that work for you. To ideally position yourself for tomorrow, begin utilizing cutting-edge survey and panel management software today.
AUSTIN, TX (December 21, 2010)- Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC (Kinesis), the industry leader for robust and scalable survey and panel management software solutions, today announced that Kinesis Survey™ now includes built-in support for Google Analytics.
Kinesis Survey™ is the most advanced multimode survey solution for market research. By adding Google Analytics’ comprehensive web tracking metrics, the already robust reporting capabilities of Kinesis Survey™ are extended even further. Kinesis Survey™ users can now readily track survey respondent activity by each survey URL for all of their survey projects.
“Kinesis continually expands the functionality of our software to ensure it maintains its place as the most powerful survey solution for market research,” said Juha Vehnia, Kinesis CTO. “With Google Analytics support, Kinesis Survey™ now applies the world standard in web traffic measurement to online survey projects, thus offering our clients even deeper analytical and behavior measurement capabilities.”
Via Google Analytics, Kinesis Survey™ URLs can be tracked to identify metrics including page views, traffic sources, geographic locations, unique visitors, device types, operating systems and more. This data can be utilized to refine recruitment, sampling, quota management and survey design strategies, as well as to measure survey traffic over time. Google Analytics functionality is included at no additional cost for all Kinesis Survey™ projects.
“Market research is rapidly evolving due to the growth of mobile device usage and social media,” Vehnia added. “As the worldwide industry leader for mobile surveys, Kinesis understands that ready access to Google Analytics metrics including device type and traffic source will further aid our clients in their successful adoption of these emerging tools.”
Kinesis Survey™ enables the programming and execution of web surveys and mobile surveys, utilizing only one mode per project or utilizing both simultaneously for a multimode solution. It supports a wide array of features, and provides an intuitive user interface and robust real-time reporting tools. In addition to Kinesis Survey™, the Kinesis product suite also includes advanced panel management and community website solutions.
About Kinesis Survey Technologies
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a comprehensive survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both mobile and web-based market research. Delivering intuitive, state-of-the-art applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.
For the MR industry, the time to capitalize on mobile research is now. According to an eMarketer report, U.S. mobile Internet usage is projected to increase to more than 101.1 million users (32.3% of the population) in 2011, and similar growth is occurring around the world. This group represents a huge and largely untapped respondent pool – and unlike PC-user respondents, they have the ability to provide feedback from virtually anywhere.
Yet even with all of the industry buzz this year, mobile is still a new and unchartered survey platform for most researchers. The challenge for newcomers lies in designing a mobile survey that both meets its research objectives and provides a satisfactory user experience for respondents. Effective mobile survey design requires much more than simply replicating an online survey in mobile format. Certain aspects of the survey design are contingent upon the kinds of mobile phones being utilized by respondents (smartphones vs. feature phones), and other design aspects are the same regardless of mobile device type. Let’s start with a few best practices that should be utilized for every mobile survey.
First, all mobile phone screens offer limited display real estate when compared to PC screens, so in the world of mobile surveys, less is always more. Use minimal branding so that the majority of the viewable area can be devoted to question content (it may be necessary to restrict branding to only the first and last survey pages for feature phones). Then, ensure that questions and response options are written as concisely as possible to optimize the limited display and reduce the need for scrolling or breaking answer lists onto an additional page. The total number of questions contained in the survey must also be limited; mobile devices are intended to be utilized on-the-go, so lengthy surveys that take more than a few minutes to complete are not ideal. Finally, there are some commonly-used online survey elements that are not supported by a majority of mobile phones, and should therefore be avoided. Table structures, Javascript, and even Other: specify questions can be tricky to implement in the mobile world.
Another consideration for all mobile surveys is the invitation delivery method: SMS (text) or email. While text invitations are likely to grab the recipients’ attention faster than email, SMS laws and costs vary greatly by region and must be defined for each mobile project. SMS rates can quickly get expensive for the client – or worse, the target recipients – therefore text expenses must be planned for in advance. Typically email invitations are best if the application permits their use. WAP push is possible in regions such as Europe where a common wireless network standard (GSM) is used.
Shifting gears, there are additional best practices that are determined by mobile device type. Researchers must determine whether their sample will be limited to users of smartphones (with higher functionality) or feature phones (with more limited functionality) or include a mix of both. This decision has several implications. For instance, smartphones offer network speeds that feature phones simply cannot match. Network speed affects how quickly each survey page (and embedded image) loads, and slow load times undoubtedly affect dropout rates. Older mobile devices also have limited color configurations that could result in a distorted visual appearance of the survey and its included elements, and some cannot support images at all. On the other hand, the image capabilities of the latest smartphones rival that of PCs, TVs and digital cameras, and most auto-scale images to fit the screen size. Full-motion video can even be utilized if the sample is limited to smartphones, however its implementation can be challenging because different devices utilize different display formats. Smartphone surveys can also include the use of embedded links (to provide additional product, support, privacy policy, etc. information), whereas most feature phones cannot.
Data entry is another a primary consideration based on device type. Smartphones enable relative ease for data entry because of their full alphanumeric key options, while feature phones have traditional phone-style keypads that make text inputs slower and more prone to typing errors. Touchscreen smartphones have a distinct issue as well – ample space must be provided between response selections so that respondents do not accidentally click the “wrong” response, and thereby invalidate the survey results. This risk can be mitigated by utilizing a mobile survey solution that includes advanced touchscreen support to optimize visibility and interaction.
This list provides a summary of the key mobile survey design considerations, but of course there are others, and every research project has its unique variables. And while much of this blog outlines the limitations of feature phones vs. smartphones, it is imperative to note that feature phones are still very effective in mobile research provided the surveys are optimized for their capabilities. For researchers who are just entering the mobile arena, hands down the number one best practice is to work with a mobile survey solution provider that possesses the software functionality and delivery experience necessary to ensure your project’s success.
Stay tuned for the next Kinesis blog post…it will identify the essential best practices for implementing and managing a mobile panel.
AUSTIN, TX (November 17, 2010)- Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC (Kinesis), the industry leader for robust and scalable survey and panel management software solutions, today announced that comScore, the leader in measuring the digital world, is expanding its usage of Kinesis Survey™ to deliver multimode surveys worldwide.
comScore will utilize Kinesis Survey™ to conduct site profiling tasks in multimode, thereby providing respondents the flexibility to complete surveys using a computer, mobile phone, or other web-enabled device. comScore will deploy surveys powered by the Kinesis platform across several of the world’s top websites, with millions of surveys to be completed annually.
“comScore has long been an industry leader in adopting new research methods and technologies,” said Leslie Townsend, Kinesis President. “Today’s corporate websites must support both web and mobile traffic, which means site analyses and delivery options must be extended across platforms as well, and comScore is at the forefront of this movement. Kinesis offers the most advanced multimode platform, and we are of course very pleased that comScore has elected to showcase it.”
The expansion to multimode usage augments a two year relationship between comScore and Kinesis. Previously comScore utilized Kinesis’ CAMI® solution for mobile-only survey delivery.
“Kinesis’ mobile solution has aided comScore in our collection of digital marketing intelligence,” said Walter Ramdeholl, comScore Vice President. “Multimode surveys are a natural progression given that people are now utilizing a variety of devices to access the web, and Kinesis Survey™ provides us this flexibility on a global scale.”
Kinesis Survey™ is the leadingmultimode, multilingual survey solution. It supports a wide array of features, and provides an intuitive user interface and robust real-time reporting tools. In addition to Kinesis Survey™, the Kinesis product suite also includes comprehensive panel management and community website solutions.
About Kinesis Survey Technologies
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a comprehensive survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both mobile and web-based market research. Delivering intuitive, state-of-the-art applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.
About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit http://comscore.com/About_comScore.
For the market research industry 2010 can arguably be called the year of change – or perhaps more accurately – the year of discussing change. The predominant theme at all of the conferences, and on all of the blogs and forums, has been about identifying the new technologies and methodologies that are impacting market research.
These conversations have been both necessary and productive; for undergoing a significant transformation without first fully exploring its implications would be irresponsible. We have discussed at great lengths WHY mobile, social media, crowdsourcing, etc. need to added to the research mix. But, far fewer have been the presentations on HOW to successfully implement these game-changers into our market research practices. I for one am hopeful that the fruitful conversations of 2010 will translate into the actions of 2011.
The NewMR Virtual Festival in December may prove to be a good bridge from why to how. 65 presentation synopses have been submitted for consideration and many, including one from Kinesis President Leslie Townsend, promise to deliver tangible, actionable recommendations. If you haven’t already, register for this first-of-its-kind event and vote for the virtual presentations you feel will most benefit the MR community (the deadline is Tuesday October 19).
This year market research continued to experience sluggish growth due to the less than stellar economy, but kudos to the industry for using its extra time wisely. It seems like everyone is on board for a market research revolution – here’s to a strong finish for 2010 and a banner 2011.
AUSTIN, TX (October 8, 2010)- Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC (Kinesis), the industry leader for robust and scalable survey software and panel management software solutions, will exhibit at two upcoming market research industry events, the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO) Annual Conference and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR) Online Research 2010 Conference.
Kinesis will showcase its premiere market research product suite at both events. Featured solutions include: the recently-released Kinesis Panel™ version 3.0, a robust and flexible panel management solution; Kinesis Survey™, the leadingmulti-mode (web/mobile) survey solution; and Kinesis Community Portal™, an interactive, multi-mode solution that enables the creation of panelist community websites.
“Kinesis continually enhances our software solutions to ensure that they remain at the forefront of market research technology,” said Leslie Townsend, Kinesis President. “Kinesis has recently introduced many new features and capabilities, and we are eager to share them with the CASRO and ESOMAR participants.”
The CASRO Annual Conference entitled Beyond the Horizon: Charting the Future of Research will take place October 11-14 at the Park Hyatt Aviara Resort in San Diego. More information is available at http://casro.org/techform/2010-annualconf.cfm. The ESOMAR Online Research Conference entitled E-Universe: The Power of Listening will be held October 17-19 at the Hotel Andels in Berlin. Details are available at: http://www.esomar.org/index.php/online-research-2010-hotel-and-venue.html.
Market researchers and other parties not in attendance at these conferences may contact the Kinesis sales team: sales@kinesissurvey.com to learn more about all Kinesis product offerings.
About Kinesis Survey Technologies
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a comprehensive survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both mobile and web-based market research. Delivering intuitive, state-of-the-art applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.
Whitepaper explores the impact of mobile device usage on current and future market research practices
AUSTIN, TX (October 5, 2010)- Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC (Kinesis), the industry leader for robust and scalable survey software and panel management software solutions, today published a whitepaper entitled The Mobile Survey Landscape – Today and Tomorrow.
This whitepaper addresses the impact of smartphone and mobile Internet growth on the market research industry, highlights the key issues related to mobile research adoption, and provides a snapshot of Kinesis’ own current mobile survey data.
“As the leading mobile market research solution provider since 2003, Kinesis hosts more mobile survey traffic than any other vendor we are aware of,” said Leslie Townsend, Kinesis President. “Mobile has been the hottest industry topic this year, and as such Kinesis decided to mine our own databases and see what interesting facts the mobile data revealed.”
Kinesis analyzed 144 random, large sample mobile surveys that contained over 4.2 million combined responses. Also analyzed was the frequency with which surveys intended for PC usage were actually accessed from mobile devices, in order gain insight about current and future survey compatibility issues.
Other available whitepapers from Kinesis are The New Economics of Building and Managing an Online Research Panel and Engaging the MOBILE Respondent: Issues and Insights.
About Kinesis Survey Technologies
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a comprehensive survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both mobile and web-based market research. Delivering intuitive, state-of-the-art applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.
Of course one of the hottest topics relevant to the future of research is mobile technology. Mobile is among the primary game changers in the research world – and it is already making a significant impact, particularly as smartphone market share continues its meteoric growth. Mobile is, in fact, why Kinesis was founded in 2003 – to capitalize on wireless technologies’ ability to expand the reach of market research – so clearly Kinesis sees mobile as a substantial component of the industry’s future.
Along with mobile, another widely discussed topic is the future role of the research survey. Will the survey continue to be the leading method of quantitative data collection? Or will the rise of social media and new data mining tools render the survey obsolete? Obviously this is another debate that is of great significance to Kinesis, since survey software is the company’s core business solution.
Like mobile device usage, social media sites are growing fast. Social media is an immediate and vast platform for customer feedback, providing real-time monitoring of brand awareness and product/service reputation like nothing before. And by mining social media data for demographic information, classic segmentations can be defined and analyzed. So, as social media usage grows, and data mining tools become more sophisticated, the question arises: will the survey die? The answer is: of course not.
The survey will continue to be a highly valuable research tool because it is still the only way to obtain data that is structured to the researcher’s intentions. Social media does not provide sufficient means to control response rates nor does it always adequately qualify sample. But social media does offer a strong engagement factor, and the marrying of the two provides respondents with powerful options – to respond in the manner that they choose and to engage with brands and products via new channels.
The rise of social media actually enhances the survey in new ways. Surveys now have more launch options – in addition to email invitations, text messages, or links on websites, surveys can be launched via the social media sites themselves, and links can embedded within social media online and downloadable applications. Also, social media sites and applications allow for new information to be passed in and out of the survey dataset – gathering more data in a way that is invisible to the respondent.
The survey isn’t dying, rather it is evolving. Surveys of the future need to be shorter and more succinct to engage a public whose patience level and attention span is shrinking. Surveys of the future need to be more targeted to provide balance to the diversity found in the social media realm. And surveys of the future must be multi-device enabled – desktop, laptop, mobile phone, wireless PDA, TV, etc. – since respondents have so many web access options to choose from, and researchers cannot control that choice.
It would be irresponsible of the market research industry to ignore the growing implications of mobile and social media, just as it would be irresponsible not to plan for the other research shifts that are coming. As Richard C. Cushing said, “Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.” As the industry that both predicts and drives the future, market research has to keep an eye on its own horizon. Some new and very powerful tools are being incorporated in our research practices. Yet some familiar and highly effective tools, like the survey, will most certainly remain.
One of the hottest industry topics this year has been the adoption of mobile research. There is consensus that the impact of mobile will be substantial, and that a major shift is already well underway. The industry continues to expound on the possibilities of this new frontier, and fret about the problems posed by wide scale implementation.
A significant issue is how to best support the wide array of cell phones (with greatly differing capabilities) that are used by mobile respondents. Providing surveys that are visually compelling on smartphones, yet straightforward enough to display on feature phones, can certainly be a challenge.
An even greater challenge is ensuring that the entire mobile experience is a positive one for panelists. Mobile research encompasses more than simply rendering surveys on cell phones – unless panelists can also access a mobile portal (to keep track of their available and completed surveys, update user information, redeem incentives, etc.), the likelihood of frustration is high. For instance, if a panelist receives a survey invitation while checking email on their cell phone and takes the survey, but then attempts to redeem incentives by accessing a website that is not optimized for mobile, their frustration will be even greater than if they had not been able to access the mobile survey at all. Researchers must offer a complete mobile experience, and ensure that their surveys and panels are optimized for any and every phone that a panelist might use.
The shift toward smartphones is happening fast. According to Nielsen, smartphones accounted for 14% of U.S. mobile devices at the end of 2008, and it predicts that smartphone penetration will exceed 50% by the end of 2011. Unquestionably this is impressive growth. Still, these numbers also indicate that feature phones will continue to have a prominent place in the mobile market for the foreseeable future.
While several vendors have launched new mobile solutions in the last couple of years, their predominant focus has been on smartphones, and many lack the technology for successful implementation on feature phones. Issues including device detection, scaling abilities (to fit the various screen sizes) and color configuration need to be addressed.
The best way to guarantee comprehensive device support is to select a mobile platform that is both proven and advanced. With CAMI®, Kinesis offers the best of both worlds. It provides one of the most robust device detection libraries with built-in support for over 2500 mobile devices in over 8000 different configurations, thereby ensuring that information will display correctly regardless of the phone type. It also offers the most advanced smartphone capabilities including revolutionary touchscreen support to optimize visibility and interaction on the newest and most dynamic phones. Plus, Kinesis has been developing and refining its mobile technology for much longer than the competition, having launched its first mobile market research platform in 2003.
Mobile offers a wealth of new possibilities for the market research industry, but only if the execution doesn’t alienate respondents. Utilizing a solution that is both cutting-edge and highly flexible is the key to success.
Kinesis Survey™ is the leading mobile survey software in the world. Utilizing our CAMI® (Computer-Assisted Mobile Interviewing) technology, our platform processes tens of thousands of wireless surveys each month, making us the most experienced software provider for mobile market research. Our clients range from large corporations to the most popular mobile sites and portals. Kinesis Survey™ is also frequently used in mobile advertisement testing and point of purchase applications.
Most in the market research industry are aware of Gartner’s report from earlier this year that predicts that mobile phones will surpass PCs as the most commonly used web access device in 2013. Even if this prediction proves inaccurate, no one disputes that mobile browsing is growing year after year at an unprecedented rate, and that this shift must be addressed to reach and engage survey respondents who prefer using their phones over their computers.
Many survey solution providers have reacted to the ever-expanding mobile landscape by offering a wireless version of their survey software. Customers can elect to run a survey via online mode or wireless mode. This approach provides options, but not flexibility. We at Kinesis have long argued that the real answer is not an either/or but a both solution. The reality is that most people access the web using a PC when they are at home or at work, and using a mobile device when they are anywhere else. Where will they be when they have the time or inclination to complete a survey?
Who knows. Market researchers cannot control which type of device a respondent will use when taking a survey, and therefore the only viable, effective answer is a multimode survey solution that can be executed seamlessly via both device types. A true multimode solution is vital so that respondents do not encounter problems such as access error messages, formatting issues, slow page load times, etc. simply because they utilized the “wrong” device type to access the survey. A true multimode solution also has to support the myriad of types and brands of wireless devices that are on the market: types such as smartphones, feature phones, tablet PCs, and PDAs, and then brands such as Apple, Google, Blackberry, Palm – providing this support a substantial, but critical task.
Mobile web access is growing, but online access isn’t going away anytime soon. Multimode surveys are more than just desirable, they are essential to the future of market research.
The attendance and energy at the MRA Annual Conference (and from what we heard, CASRO as well) suggests that the market research industry is back in full swing with a focus upon new methodologies, particularly around social media, as well as around new technologies, including mobile data collection modes.
For those of you who could not attend but follow Kinesis activities, mobile technology was our focus this year. As attendees approached our booth, a large percentage perceive that migration to mobile technology is about engagement of the respondent. With this assumption in mind, the natural concerns become representativeness of the sample, and the lack of available public access panels. The effort is upon trying to control the respondent experience.
Our message is a different one. We are gradually losing control of the respondent experience. Panelists will check their email on the device of their choosing – it could be a PC, a netbook, an iPad, a mobile phone, or a gaming console. Our task is to support as many devices and browsers as possible so as to reduce non-response bias and to provide a path for a natural migration that will occur with us or without us. Similarly, communities and social media will occur on the device that the respondent selects – not the researcher. Through meta-data that we and others capture, we have seen an increasing percentage of respondents coming in on mobile devices/using mobile browsers, indicating a willingness of at least some respondents to bear the cost of taking a survey on a mobile device. For some, it may be the only choice; for others, it is the most convenient way to provide feedback on products/services of interest by using stray moments more productively. For others, the incentive or the novelty of the experience may also be a factor.
Mobile data collection presents many challenges – especially for the 15+ minute survey – but to NOT support mobile functionality is an increasingly unattractive alternative. As this trend increases, mobile aps that provide a richer experience will emerge, and the meta-data surrounding location capture will provide rich new insights to researchers.
Hello there! Kinesis Survey Technologies has started this blog to keep readers informed about all topics related to our company, products and services, and the market research industry. Kinesis provides the most advanced survey software and panel management software in the world.
Kinesis Survey™ is the leading multi-mode (web, mobile and wireless), multilingual survey solution. It supports a wide array of features, and offers an intuitive user interface and robust real-time reporting tools.
Kinesis Panel™ is a highly scalable panel software solution that effectively manages panelist communities of all sizes. It offers a powerful query, distribution and invitation management system that optimizes panel performance.
The product suite also includes Kinesis Community Portal™, which is a flexible and interactive community website solution that includes advanced customization and administration tools.
All Kinesis products integrate seamlessly to offer the most comprehensive market research software product suite available in the industry.
We look forward to sharing ideas with you, and we welcome your interest and participation!
Austin, TX (June 9, 2010) – Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC (Kinesis), the industry leader for robust and scalable survey software and panel management software solutions, today unveils a new mobile application that enables market researchers to monitor survey projects by using the latest generation touchscreen mobile phones.
The mobile monitoring application provides Kinesis Survey™ users with real-time status of all survey projects and quotas. It also enables users to activate/deactivate surveys, adjust quotas, and program email alerts. The application is compatible with Apple iPhone® and iPad® and any Google Android® based devices.
“Kinesis is empowering market researchers to monitor survey projects from anywhere, and at anytime,” said Kinesis CTO Juha Vehnia. “This custom mobile app provides great convenience and flexibility for accessing survey results, and Kinesis is pleased to offer this value added feature to our clients.”
Kinesis is exhibiting at the Marketing Research Association (MRA) Annual Conference today through Friday at the Seaport Hotel in Boston. Conference attendees can visit Booth #30 to see a full demo of mobile survey monitoring. Market researchers and other parties not in attendance at the MRA conference can contact the Kinesis sales team to learn more about this new application and all Kinesis product offerings.
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a comprehensive survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both wireless and web-based market research. Delivering easy-to-use, intuitive applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.
Austin, TX (May 24, 2010) – Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC (Kinesis), the industry leader for robust and scalable survey software and panel management software solutions, today announced its reseller partnership with Online Market Intelligence LLC (OMI), a leading online market research company based in Russia.
Under the terms of the partnership agreement OMI will have exclusive software and hosting reseller rights to all Kinesis products in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus.
“Kinesis is pleased to partner with the premiere online market research company in Russia,” said Kinesis President Leslie Townsend. “OMI has an outstanding reputation in the region and will be able to market and support the Kinesis product suite with a local presence and Russian language support.”
OMI provides data collection and management services to market research firms, advertising agencies and enterprise clients from a variety of industries. Kinesis offers its Kinesis Survey™, Kinesis Panel™ and Kinesis Community Portal™ solutions to provide a comprehensive multimode (web/wireless) market research product suite.
“Kinesis’ survey and panel management software is best of breed and its capabilities are highly desirable to our clients,” said OMI Chief Executive Dr. Alexander Shashkin. “OMI is excited to incorporate Kinesis solutions into our market research offerings.”
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a comprehensive survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both wireless and web-based market research. Delivering easy-to-use, intuitive applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.
Online Market Intelligence LLC (OMI) is a leading Russian company providing integrated solutions for online market research used by research organizations, advertising agencies and marketing departments of Fortune Global 500 companies. These solutions include online survey programming, data collection through our own online panels in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and the Baltic states, and real time data visualization. OMI offers convenient and cost-effective solutions to receive feedback from customers, partners and employees. For more information, visit www.omirussia.ru/en.
Austin, TX (May 20, 2010) – Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC (Kinesis), the industry leader for robust and scalable survey software and panel management software solutions, today announces availability of an enhanced, high performance email delivery system for its market research product suite. The new platform offers exceptional email deliverability rates for Kinesis clients.
Powered by an intelligent outbound email gateway, the new offering improves deliverability through the utilization of advanced configuration/control features including IP address pools and domain key signatures. It enables real-time delivery tracking, improved response rates, and enhanced reputation monitoring for market research panels.
“Email deliverability is critical to the success of panels,” said Kinesis President Leslie Townsend. “Via this new platform, Kinesis is now able to offer its clients the most advanced email delivery system in the industry.”
The platform is effective for panels of all sizes, and is particularly well-suited for large scale panels with differing mail classes that need to be managed separately. It provides clients with dedicated sender IP address pools and utilizes the latest authentication specifications such as SenderID, SPF, DKIM and Domain Keys that are preferred with major email providers including Google®, WindowsLive Hotmail® and Yahoo!®.
The email delivery system will be offered for the Kinesis Survey™ and Kinesis Panel™ products. Kinesis Survey™ is the leadingmulti-mode (web/mobile), multilingual survey solution. It supports a wide array of features, and offers an intuitive user interface and robust real-time reporting tools. Kinesis Panel™ is a highly scalable panel software solution that effectively manages panelist communities of all sizes. It offers a powerful query, distribution and invitation management system that optimizes panel performance. The product suite also includes Kinesis Community Portal™, which is a flexible and interactive community website solution that includes advanced customization and administration tools.
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a comprehensive survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both wireless and web-based market research. Delivering easy-to-use, intuitive applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.
Austin, TX (May 20, 2010) – Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC (Kinesis), the industry leader for robust and scalable survey software and panel management software solutions, today announced the addition of a card sort question type to the Market Research edition of its popular Kinesis Survey™ product.
This easy-to-use feature enables “point-and-click” programming of sorting exercises and supports both sortable text and media categories. It offers a flexible number of categories, the ability to randomize/rotate/anchor categories and/or choices, as well as the ability to display options in a list or a stack.
“The utilization of our new card sort feature is as simple as programming a radio question,” said Kinesis President Leslie Townsend. “Using a pull down menu in the interface, clients are able to program complex, multi-bucket drag and drop questions without any prior programming experience, and without the extensive use of scripting languages as required in other survey software applications.”
The new card sort feature also offers cross tabulation support and customized reporting capabilities including real-time hierarchical cluster analysis, a multidimensional scaling map, and output compatible with third-party card sort analysis software including SynCaps.
“Card sort is a valuable question type in survey development, and further enhances the Kinesis Survey™ product offering,” Townsend added. “We are pleased to bring this additional functionality to our clients, and with the same ease of use that they have come to expect from our applications.”
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a comprehensive survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both wireless and web-based market research. Delivering easy-to-use, intuitive applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.
Austin, TX (April 29, 2010) - Kinesis Survey Technologies LLC (Kinesis), the industry leader for robust and scalable survey software and panel management software solutions, today announced its partnership with CMS Research, the leading interactive voice response (IVR) market research company.
Kinesis provides the premiere web/wireless survey solution for market research, Kinesis Survey™. Through the partnership CMS Research’s IVR platform will be offered as an alternative response mechanism for Kinesis Survey™ mobile survey participants when desired.
“We continually strive to ensure Kinesis Survey™ is the most robust and flexible survey software solution in the industry,” said Kinesis CTO Juha Vehnia. “The addition of IVR technology furthers this goal, and CMS Research is the ideal partner because of their vast IVR experience and high-quality services.”
Kinesis Survey™ is the only multimode, multilingual solution in the world and is the established leader for mobile survey implementation. It enables survey execution from computers and various wireless devices including mobile phones. The addition of IVR offers an audio-only survey response option in addition to the solution’s full interactive capabilities.
“Kinesis offers an outstanding web and wireless survey solution, and the addition of an IVR alternative makes the platform a truly comprehensive one,” said CMS Research President James Cummins. “CMS is excited about our collaboration with Kinesis to elevate the data collection capabilities of both companies.”
Kinesis Survey Technologies, LLC provides a comprehensive survey and panel management product suite to advance innovation in both wireless and web-based market research. Delivering easy-to-use, intuitive applications, Kinesis software products can be effectively utilized without deep programming knowledge yet are robust enough to perform the most complex of survey and panel functions. Headquartered in Austin, TX, Kinesis offers product versions for both the market research industry and enterprise business organizations, and proudly supports next generation research applications worldwide.
Last month Kinesis customer iGR released findings from a study they conducted about how consumers typically utilize their smartphones. Just as these devices themselves are evolving, so are the preferred activities that are performed on them. iGR issued a survey to 1000+ U.S. smartphone users (balanced by age and income) and asked them to report on what they actually do with their “phones.”
Those who have been reading this blog with any regularity know that we at Kinesis have been arguing, for nearly a decade now, that the market research industry must shift its online survey processes to support mobile respondents. Surveys must enable respondents to participate from any common web device of their choosing – be it a desktop computer, a tablet, or a mobile phone. In recent years many others within the industry have joined us as proponents of mobile and multimode survey implementation, so the collective voice has been growing louder. Unfortunately, it appears that many researchers are still not listening.
OnlineMR
Millennials have never known adulthood without the Internet and mobile phones. For the younger half of the 18-34 year old group, social media has been part of their everyday lives since they were tweens. A staggering 
SoLoMo is the new acronym on the block, according to the presenters at last week’s 
Earlier this year Kinesis unveiled QR code support for Kinesis Survey™ so that clients could automatically generate a 
The conference offered four topical modules over two days, with numerous speakers and expert roundtables. One of the modules, named Strategic Insight, posed this question: Will we recognize the market research industry in five years? Kinesis President Leslie Townsend was among the speakers featured in this module, and to address this question she listed her top ten predictions about the future of the industry during her speech “Future-proof Mobile Research: Successful Survey and Panel Strategies for the Mobile Revolution.”
Recently our president Leslie Townsend presented sessions focusing on mobile market research at both the CASRO Technology and MRA Annual conferences. Each session had time for Q&A at the end, and the CASRO presentation produced a very interesting question on the topic of “jailbreaking.” The attendee was curious as to how the market research industry should best support mobile respondents who have jailbroken smartphones.
The first half of the tutorial focused upon statistics that impact the survey research industries. Callegaro presented data indicating that the frequency of mobile internet access is increasing rapidly (as of May 2010, up to 43% of mobile phone users were accessing the mobile internet several times daily), that smartphone ownership is sharply rising, and that respondents are attempting to answer surveys via their mobile devices. In a June 2010 Google Advertiser Satisfaction Survey of the US and Canada, Google measured the break-off (dropout) rates of respondents who used desktop/laptop/tablet devices versus mobile devices and found the break-off rate to be much higher among mobile device users (24.2% vs. 8.4% for the computer group). This data indicates a clear non-response bias, as assumed to be attributable to the frustration experienced by the mobile users when attempting to answer certain question types on small screens.
Sean Conry of Techneos Systems and Patricia Graham of Knowledge Networks presented a case study about the principle considerations of implementing mobile research, and provided detailed results of their case study project and its business implications. The NPD Group’s Inna Burdein looked at how panelist reporting habits change as they become tenured, and how research results are affected. Melanie Courtwright and Chuck Miller from DMS Insights compared four of the most commonly used respondent validation programs to understand the validation metrics used by each and the resulting validation rates provided. These, and many other sessions, were truly insightful and had a lot of “action” included within their conversation.
Kinesis offers up the following as the Top 5 Market Research Resolutions for the coming year. Consider implementing these resolutions and chart your successful course for 2011.
For the MR industry, the time to capitalize on mobile research is now. According to an 
These conversations have been both necessary and productive; for undergoing a significant transformation without first fully exploring its implications would be irresponsible. We have discussed at great lengths WHY mobile, social media, crowdsourcing, etc. need to added to the research mix. But, far fewer have been the presentations on HOW to successfully implement these game-changers into our market research practices. I for one am hopeful that the fruitful conversations of 2010 will translate into the actions of 2011.
to capitalize on wireless technologies’ ability to expand the reach of market research – so clearly Kinesis sees mobile as a substantial component of the industry’s future.
A significant issue is how to best support the wide array of cell phones (with greatly differing capabilities) that are used by mobile respondents. Providing surveys that are visually compelling on smartphones, yet straightforward enough to display on feature phones, can certainly be a challenge.
The attendance and energy at the 
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